Dear White Privilege Deniers

Simply because you cannot address your unearned privilege does not mean that the speaker is a racist. I know that this is a difficult concept for you to understand, but being white means that your body is embedded with certain privileges, and like it or not, you will benefit from. This by the way is anti-racism 101.

When someone takes the time to point out to you the ways in which you are benefiting from being white, the appropriate response is not to start foaming at the mouth screaming racist, or you hate all white people. Even if your allegations of racism were correct, the ability of the person of colour to invoke said racism to make your life more difficult, or gain unfair social advantage is non existent, but then you would recognize that if you were not in denial.

Pointing out the ways in which all white people benefit from racism in our society is not being racist, it is being a realist. Perhaps it would be easier for you to live in denial of your privilege, but for those of us that are daily subject to racism, quite frankly your comfort doesn’t amount to a drop of water in a bucket of warm piss.

For people of colour racism translates to poor education, over representation in both the military and the penal system (note: not as lawyers, judges, and officers; those are largely white people) poverty, violence etc and etc. If one group is succeeding and another is suffering in a system that is based on exploitation (read: capitalism) obviously dear WPD, the problem is the systemic inequality.

I’ll bet my last pubic hair (yeah they’re a valuable thing in the age of the bald muff) that some of you are in denial chiefly because of fear. What you do not realize is that fear in this case in and of itself is yet another expression of your unearned privilege. You have enslaved us, raped us, sodomized us, economically exploited us, systematically undereducated us, perpetuated lies and untruths…and you’re the ones that are scared. PHuuleeezze. You certainly don’t see black people wearing sheets, burning crosses, homes and lynching but you go ahead and tell me what fear is.

Oh I know, it’s because we are just such a violent people. White privilege is necessary because men of colour constantly express violence based in hyper masculinity. I suppose when I look at Jean Claude van Dam movies, Rocky, Rambo, even George fucking Bush in his fighter pilot suit or dressed up in his hunting jacket with a gun none of that is hyper masculine? Nope, it is just the white man making the world safe for the civilized people. I guess we know how Jack Bower keeps his ratings so high on 24, the world constantly needs to be saved and only white people can do it. Does being the living embodiment of Kiplings White Man’s Burden weigh you down?

Since whites have caused such a high degree of damage, it is a fair statement to make that they need to clean up their mess; however fixing the quagmire should not mean continuing the war on the brown peoples of this world. Fixing the damage should mean unpacking your knapsack of privilege. It should mean daily performing acts of mitigation to ensure that as much as possible you are reducing the degree to which you benefit from privilege. How about correcting your friends when they use racist language around you? No, I thought not. It is much easier to tell bodies of colour that they are racist when they call you on your privilege. Pssst, I’ll share a secret with you, people of colour are aware of how your PC speech goes out the window when you are in a room of all whites.

I am tired of hearing white people claim to feel attacked the minute someone starts talking about privilege. Yeah I know you would like everything to remain status quo, but that means that my humanity and my self worth is degraded. Of course you want people of colour to reassure you, and not critique you because that means that you would get to go ahead and wallow in your privilege like a sow in a pile of mud. The days of sambo shucking and jiving are over, so you will just have to deal with the fact that instead of talking about you behind your back, black people will now call you on your bullshit to your face. You should take heart, because this is a sign of progress, at least we respect you enough to tell you that you are fucking up.